Monthly Archives: July 2014

For a long time now video games have had regional releases and you can play Region 1 games (from the US) in Region 2 (Europe) on European machines. This isn’t locked and when you order games off the internet it’s best to be sure you are getting the right region game for your machine otherwise any extra content you buy will most likely not work.

What Xbox and Sony don’t tell you is that extra downloadable content (DLC) is non-refundable and companies such as Ubisoft who make the DLC content for their games will not allow you to change a US code for a UK or European code.

For example a UK citizen can see a PS3 game on Amazon for sale at a very reasonable price. Buy that game, wait a whole month for it to be delivered and realise they can’t play online because the game code is region 1 only and not region 2.

Of course you should be able to return the game and get a refund, but shipping it back to America is pricey and the consumer is out of pocket this way.

So this is more of a warning to make sure you are buying games that are the same region as your console. To check this in a store simply look at the bottom of the spine and make sure the correct graphic is present.

Another interesting point I have thought about and wondered because it’s DLC content, is it taxed? Is the consumer paying any tax in the price? Are governments taxing companies DLC profits? How much is the consumer out of pocket and how many people have lost their money because they are not informed about the regional locking of DLC content?

If the games industry is in the billions and DLC content is in the millions? Could the consumer market already be out of pocket by millions? And considering DLC is non-refundable I am betting these companies have already make a fair few millions off this exploit.